


Absence of Fear

by little0bird



Series: Stolen Time [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-08
Updated: 2019-07-08
Packaged: 2020-06-24 19:16:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19730095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/little0bird/pseuds/little0bird
Summary: My inspiration for this afterlife comes from Elmer Rice's play The Adding Machine. In it, Mr. Zero, the main character, is executed for murdering his boss. When he dies, he goes to a place called the Elysian Fields, and is met by the woman he loves. Unfortunately for them, Mr. Zero does not believe he deserves to be happy, so he's sent elsewhere.Here, the characters are in the afterlife they deserve and what they feel they deserve. Hence, we can have a Remus without lycanthropy, who looks as he would had he not been a werewolf, a Sirius without the ravages of Azkaban... And a Dumbledore who is in the lovely place, but in an elderly body... uh, 'body'... because he has unresolved guilt and other issues. But seeing as he's not a bad person, Dumbledore deserves to be somewhere nice, but he believes he doesn't quite deserve the rest of it.





	Absence of Fear

Wherever they were, it mirrored a place where they'd been happy. It looked like the house, down to the gouge on the banister where she'd dropped her cauldron while she was in school. Occasionally, they could see Teddy, but he wasn't sure about the passage of time. The tiny glimpses they were able to see didn't tell them much.

He didn't recognize himself at first. The absence of the myriad scars on his face and torso startled him. He hadn't noticed until she had said something, in the confusion afterwards, when they were still learning how to cope with their new situation. His hands fascinated him, especially. He couldn't recall a time when there hadn't been small lines crisscrossing the backs of his hands and fingers.

He lay on his back, watching the stars emerge from the inky night sky, unheeding of the snow packed under his body. Stargazing was so much better when it was cold. They stood out in sharp relief against the crisp winter skies. His eyes flicked to one side, and his mouth dropped open in disbelief.

He held up a hand in front of his face, a sense of wonder spreading through him. His face turned the to brightly shining full moon overhead.

Remus Lupin hadn't looked at the full moon without a sense of fear and trepidation for most of his life.

He didn't hear the sound of footsteps crunching through the snow behind him. 'What are you looking at?' she asked softly, crouching behind him, her arms encircling his waist.

'It's beautiful…' he breathed, indicating the moon. He turned his head, and ran his hand through Tonks' hair, watching the play of moonlight on the light brown waves. 'I've never seen it this way before.'

**Author's Note:**

> My inspiration for this afterlife comes from Elmer Rice's play The Adding Machine. In it, Mr. Zero, the main character, is executed for murdering his boss. When he dies, he goes to a place called the Elysian Fields, and is met by the woman he loves. Unfortunately for them, Mr. Zero does not believe he deserves to be happy, so he's sent elsewhere.
> 
> Here, the characters are in the afterlife they deserve and what they feel they deserve. Hence, we can have a Remus without lycanthropy, who looks as he would had he not been a werewolf, a Sirius without the ravages of Azkaban... And a Dumbledore who is in the lovely place, but in an elderly body... uh, 'body'... because he has unresolved guilt and other issues. But seeing as he's not a bad person, Dumbledore deserves to be somewhere nice, but he believes he doesn't quite deserve the rest of it.


End file.
